Microsoft Dynamics CRM in Australia

As good customer service is paramount to business growth, a guaranteed way to realise further value from CRM deployment is to invest in training. Having the right CRM skills places organisations in a better position to manage customers and ultimately, to keep them. For further information, please visit the DDLS website. http://www.ddls.com.au/VendCourseGrp/MS%20/48.htm

In addition to offering certification training, DDLS now provides end user training on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. Other CPLS that offers training on Dynamics CRM are Advanced Training http://www.advancedtraining.com.au/content/services/def_dotnet.jsp?bannerId=41 and CEO Training http://www.ceotraining.com.au/_catalog_42729/Microsoft_Dynamics

Cheers, Ross

Brisbane-based software company Zap has been selected as Microsoft’s 2009 ISV/Software Solutions Innovation Partner of the Year. With this Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference Award, Zap’s Business Analytics for Microsoft Dynamics solution has been recognised as the global leader in innovative software solutions built on Microsoft technologies for their web-based solution which provides customers with advanced analytics, dashboards, scorecards, analysis and reports.

According to Zap, their products, Business Analytics for Microsoft Dynamics, are innovative solutions that make analytics easy for Microsoft Dynamics partners and customers. These out-of-the-box solutions remove the time, risk and resource drain typically associated with analytics projects. Their patent-pending technology is unique in accommodating even the most heavily customised Microsoft Dynamics implementations, to ensure a rapid return and the ability to remain agile and responsive to change.

Microsoft Australia, Dynamics Business Group Director, Chris Ridd, also says he is very impressed with the work of Zap. “Zap provides Microsoft Dynamics customers with powerful analytics that add value to their existing investment in enterprise resource planning or customer relationship management technology by highlighting areas they can reduce overall costs, increase efficiencies and improve performance,” he says. "This is particularly important in today's economic climate, where organisations are under increased pressure to lift performance and reduce costs."

Zap President Garth Laird says the company devised the “out-of-the-box” solution to remove time, risk and resource drain typically associated with analytics projects. “Zap is committed to fully supporting the Microsoft community, by providing global support to our Dynamics reseller partners, and also in extending our coverage from Microsoft Dynamics CRM and NAV to include GP and AX later in 2009.”

Cheers, Ross

The new Microsoft Australia Partner Readiness & Training blog is up and running. It is dedicated to covering training resources and content to help drive Microsoft Australia partners' skills and capability on Microsoft technology and solutions, which in turn leads to revenue growth, customer & partner satisfaction and value. It covers the Microsoft Dynamics range, as well as other key Microsoft technologies. Check it out:
http://blogs.technet.com/auspartnertraining/ 

Cheers, Ross

The Microsoft Dynamics GP product management and marketing team are excited to announce the availability of a new DemoMate demonstration file for the new Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (BETA) Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 SP4. 

Full blog article:
http://blogs.msdn.com/gp/archive/2009/06/23/microsoft-dynamics-crm-4-0-beta-adapter-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp-10-0-sp4-integration-demomate-file-now-available.aspx

According to the post, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 will be available in Calendar Q3 2009. Note: This release is being tested for US English implementations of Dynamics GP only at this stage.

Cheers, Ross

New and improved dashboards is the focus of the R2 release just out.

This is release 2 of 3 for the Analytics Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. This release incorporates some bug fixes to the existing dashboards for SQL Server 2005. It also introduces a set of dashboards for SQL Server 2008.

You can download it now from Codeplex at:
http://www.codeplex.com/crmaccelerators/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=20449

Some customers and partners may be familiar with Analytics Foundation for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 which was a business intelligence feature pack for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0. Analytics Foundation for Dynamics CRM 3.0 included Dashboards, Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and a suite of new reports. Analytics Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 (R2) expands on this, and is designed to support a range of business intelligence “maturity” levels for customers and partners. The Analytics accelerator has been built to cater for differing business intelligence skill-sets and experience levels.

Cheers, Ross